Stone Age Iberian miners of both sexes 5,300 to 4,300 years ago are believed to have had important status in their community near what is now Barcelona, Spain, as some of their dead were entombed in...
It is perhaps due to the importance of salt that one of the biggest salt mines in the world is associated with one of the greatest conquerors of the ancient world. Cheap and easily available, s alt...
Empires may rise and fall, but the impact they have on their conquered subjects and the future may continue beyond their passing, for better or for worse. The Spanish Empire, which began in the 15 th...
Scientists studying ice core samples from Peru have discovered a variety of trace elements, indicating that Spanish colonial mining caused toxic air pollution over South America approximately 240...
Complex hydraulic systems and the methods of ancient Roman gold mining have been discovered using sophisticated laser detection and aerial mapping over Las Médulas in northwestern Spain...
In 2004, German archaeologists from Ruhr-University Bochum discovered the gold mine in Sakdrissi. Dated to the third millennium BC, it is one of the oldest known gold mines in the world and has been...
Wilgie Mia, known by the Wajarri Traditional Owners as Thuwarri Thaa (the place of red ochre), lies in the Weld Ranges of Australia. It is the largest and deepest underground Aboriginal ochre mine in...
A remarkable development in space technology involving the use of unmanned ships to intercept small asteroids and mine for useful ores and minerals could by operational as early as 2015. The...